We recently connected with Sarah DeYoung and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
One unique thing about me as an artist and graphic designer is everything I do is hand-drawn. From the typeface to the circles to the shapes and everything in between, I draw by hand on my iPad Pro using Apple Pencil. I love hand lettering and creating unique letters and individual typefaces for brands. Hand drawing this helps me maintain a super organic feel, and you can really see the hand in my work. Whereas most graphic designers use computerized text, I steer away from it.
Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
how I got into things:
I’m Sarah DeYoung, the creative mind behind sarcreate, a blend of my name and my passion for creation. It all began in 2020 when I dove into the world of digital art, seeking a new path beyond my degree in K-12 Art Education with a minor in painting. As I started experimenting, I found a new avenue for my creativity. Posting my work on Instagram was just the beginning, but it quickly gained momentum. What started as a platform for sharing soon turned into loads of custom art requests. Instead of selling art prints as I initially planned, I found myself inundated with inquiries for logos, t-shirt designs, and more. this is really what started my graphic design business.
from there, I slowly began creating a portfolio of work for various growing + established businesses. my pricing was minimal at first, and then I began charging enough to make this my full time job. all of my graphic design skills are self taught and im learning more and more every day.
bio from my website:
Sarah DeYoung is the stoked creative behind sarcreate (Sarah + create). She creates full-time as a freelancer from her home on the North Shore of Maui. Sarah creates custom designs for established and growing businesses, such as: logos, t-shirt designs, patterns, social media graphics, etc.
Sarah’s art is inspired by surf culture, tropical living, outdoor adventures and board sports. Sarah draws everything by hand which distinguishes her style as a digital artist and graphic designer.
She received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Art Education with a minor in painting from Western Michigan University. Being born and raised in the beautiful Great Lakes state of Michigan, she has always had a love for being on, in, and near the water. As an adult, she has grown roots in Maine, Hawai’i and Alaska, where she’s never been more than a few minutes from a body of water.
When she’s not playing outside in the tropics surfing, snorkeling, hiking or anything that evokes stoke, Sarah loves to travel. Especially to take snowboard trips.
what I do now:
logos, patterns, t-shirt designs, patterns, full branding, etc. I also wholesale my art and am in shops all over the world. generally surfy, beachy shops.
how I do it:
work from my home on Maui’s north shore, work in and out of coffee shops, basically whatever I feel like that day. I travel frequently, at least one trip a month, and my work always comes with me. I never thought id get to live a nomadic lifestyle like this.
who I work with: clients in the surf, skate, snow industries and anything tropical, beachy, boho vibes. I am a surfer, snowboarder, and loveer of nature and adventures, so it’s amazing that I get to work with clients in the industries I live and breathe.
problems I solve for clients:
I create unique, hand drawn brands and designs that cannot be replicated. things I design have my touch and style, and people know it came from sarcreate.
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
Yes!
1. The bread and butter and main source of income is my freelance graphic design services.
2. next is Wholesale. I create my own line of art prints that are stocked in beachy, boho, surfy tropical shops all over the world. I have a wholesale manager mainly manage this for me that way I can focus on freelance work.
3. Art Prints: I sell art prints on my website of my work. I use a drop-shipping service (Printful) which is super helpful and creates a passive stream of income. There are pros and cons to not managing your own online order fulfillment, but I find that he pros outweigh the cons for my nomadic lifestyle
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
instagram! instagram started 100% as my lead source.
insta strategy: I began posting every single day for a few months. eventually one post finally took off, and gave me the momentum ive needed. I’ve kept up that momentum of being extremely active on instagram and now my goal is to post 3x a week. I still get most of my clients from there, but often get referrals
ALSO!
Advice for getting new clients is to participate in events and network with folks who would like your style,/are audience memebers of your niche. Since my art is surfy and tropical, when I was first getting started, I participated in a lot of art markets at home in Hawaii. since I live where my audience lives, its is super easy. my goal is to sell art prints at these events, but I ended up meeting and networking with many people which has led to clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sarcreate.co
- Instagram: @sarcreate
- Other: wholesale: https://www.sarcreate.co/wholesale
Image Credits
Roni Boss Live Alive Coalition